People walk across the campus of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Photograph: Tony Gutierrez/AP

In a neighbourhood of Dallas where stone mansions rise out of lush green lawns, there is a corridor of low-slung flats whose demolition, now begun, could soon give way to much greater grandeur. Here, on the eastern edges of Southern Methodist University, may one day stand the George W Bush presidential library, museum and thinktank, a multimillion dollar complex that could become a beacon of conservative thought.

Except that to the considerable embarrassment of the university and the White House, many people, on campus and off, are demanding that Mr Bush take his legacy some place else.

"Given the record of this administration in deeply dividing our country, and bringing down the ire of the international community on the United States, it seems a poor decision to give a permanent place on campus for what could become a bully pulpit for the Bush administration to defend its neo-conservative policies," says William McElvaney, an ordained Methodist minister and retired professor, who has been among the most vocal protesters.

The protest, which has spread from campus to a section of the Methodist clergy, has led to a national debate on one of the stranger traditions of the American presidency - that former denizens of the White House play a leading role in determining their own place in history.

For Mr Bush, shaping that legacy seems especially important. As president, he has been more concerned than any in recent memory at controlling the flow of information. In 2001, he passed an executive order limiting access to his presidential papers once he leaves the White House. His ambitions for his monument are high. The library complex at SMU could cost as much as $500m (£250m) - far more than any other presidential library or museum. It will also house a thinktank that would spread Mr Bush's ideas about "compassionate conservatism". Unlike other presidential thinktanks, Mr Bush's would operate completely outside the university's control.

"Everything we know about the Bush administration is that they tend to think big. They will want to have the maximum popular influence on the definition of what happened in the Bush years," says Cal Jillson, who teaches US politics at SMU. "I think of it as the Bush cyclotron - 24/7 spin on the Bush legacy."

By the time most presidents leave the White House, they have already chosen the site that will be a repository of their papers for future scholars as well as a museum where they can exert control over how they are seen in years to come. Those facilities are turned over to government administrators. But Mr Bush's thinktank at SMU will report directly to his foundation - raising concerns about academic standards and independence he was forced to address this week.

"I understand there are some who have reservations," he said in a television interview. "And my advice to them is, understand that a library and institution would enhance education, be a place for interesting discussion and be a place for people to express their views and write and think."

When Mr Bush and his advisers, led by his former commerce secretary Donald Evans, chose Southern Methodist University for his library, it seemed a natural choice.

Texas, after all, is home for Mr Bush. While Mr Bush may rival Richard Nixon as the most unpopular president in history, he still has friends here. During his years in politics, the wealthy elites of Dallas have been generous, making the city one of the most reliable for Republican fundraisers.

The Bushes also have strong ties to the university. Laura Bush was a student here, and in their Dallas days, the Bushes worshipped at the Methodist church that anchors the southern end of the campus. The vice-president, Dick Cheney, once sat on the board of trustees. Mrs Bush does still.

For a middling private university such as SMU, those connections became extremely valuable once Mr Bush entered the White House. The library would make SMU a destination for scholars of the Bush presidency - "a tremendous storehouse of history", says Brad Cheves, the university's vice-president for development. Its presence would elevate a regional institution to the national stage and, the university hopes, also attract donors from wealthy supporters of Mr Bush.

In 2001, the university's president, Gerald Turner, set up committees to try to woo Mr Bush to SMU, dispatching professors on research trips to presidential libraries around the country. Land was purchased on the edge of campus, where the condominiums now stand, paid for by a $35m gift from a Texas oil man who is a close friend of Mr Bush, Ray Hunt. Models were constructed - although these have yet to be seen in public. The university also drafted a proposal for a school of public service to be built in Mr Bush's name.

By the time Mr Evans issued his formal request for candidates in 2005, SMU was ready. There were rival suitors: Baylor University in Waco, Texas, not far from Mr Bush's ranch, as well as the smaller University of Dallas. But last month, Mr Evans announced that SMU was the frontrunner. The University of Dallas withdrew their bid last week.

But despite the enthusiasm of SMU's administrators 68 professors and theologians signed a letter against the library, saying the war on Iraq and Mr Bush's views on climate change, gay rights and other issues made his library an unsuitable addition to the campus. Most, however, while they are concerned at Mr Bush's order efforts to deny scholars access to his papers, say they can stomach the library and the museum, but are concerned about the thinktank. "I know Bush will be bringing with him a trojan horse loaded with people who heretofore disdained the United Methodist Church. Many of us believe they will ride in here on a trojan horse and leech off us to get credibility for their own views," says Susanne Johnson, an ordained minister and an associate professor in Christian education at the university.

The university argues that independence for the Bush thinktank will protect the academy from any potential fallout. "Autonomy is actually helpful to maintain the independence of SMU, and the independence of the institution," Mr Cheves says.

Still others argue that there is nothing to fear even in a highly ideological thinktank.

"In 2009, George W Bush is history. People are reacting to this proposal as if he were president in perpetuity. This is going to be a matter of history," says Jim Hollifield, a political science professor at SMU. "And nobody can tell me that these past eight years aren't going to be tremendously important in history."